4kam and archos 405 motorcycle videos
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ridgebacks
- Archos Novice
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- Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:16 pm
4kam and archos 405 motorcycle videos
I have just got my 405 through the post along with a 4kam (http://www.4kam.com/4Kam_helmet_cameras.htm) camera. I was expecting everything to just plug and play. Does anyone know what i need to connect these two items please? Thanks PLEASE READ ALL POSTS
Last edited by ridgebacks on Mon Jun 09, 2008 6:02 am, edited 3 times in total.
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ridgebacks
- Archos Novice
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:16 pm
for others benefit
I'll reply to myself then. Bought an Archos adapter (£42) and am now up and running. For anyone else thinking of buying an Archos for use with a helmet cam i would not really recommend it on my brief experience so far. The picture quality appears to be poor with similar colours being shown as the same, resulting in a loss of detail and a patchy/blocky appearance. I assume this is down to the compression used as it looks like a photo that has been highly compressed. The ability to charge from USB is also useless due to the time it takes. 8hrs connected to my computer only allowed about 6 seconds of video recording before the Archos shut down. This means more expense having to buy a charger. Unless you are recording from a position where only a bullet cam will fit i can't really see the point. If you were recording from say inside a car, then a basic digital still camera will give better results when set to video mode. The digital camera also does not have cables running between camera and recorder, and does not need a seperate power supply. I will update when i have more experience with the Archos and post a link to allow download of full quality video i have taken. Before i bought it i could only find samples on youtube which are reduced quality. Image to illustrate increased size with adapter fitted. PLEASE READ ALL POSTS
Last edited by ridgebacks on Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:31 am, edited 4 times in total.
Hi Mate,
Thought I would try and shed a bit more light for you as i'm a lame user of anything technical. Im clumsy too, which doesnt help!
I've got the Bullet Cam for the Archos, the Gen 5 Version, which im assuming you don't have? Anyway, just been playing with mine outside and it does the business for me. it was fully charged up and there wasn't much of a hit to the battery, however i've only recorded about 5 mins so far and intend to do multiple 5-10 min clips when im boarding. I will come back to my pc, download the clips and charge overnight ready for next day.
I've had to buy some attachments for my goggles for when i go snowboarding from dogcam.com and these work well imo.
Bullet Cam's are meant to be used for extreme sports, not day to day videoing, that's what Camcorders are for. I can see little point in a bullet cam for any other reason, unless you have started stalking your neighbour? My neighbours quite nice so I might try that, lol.
Another hint is to not bother charging via the USB lead to your pc, it takes forever, just use a USB Plug Adapter straight from the mains. I happen to have a blackberry which has this plug feature and also a Canadian Plug adapter so im sorted for Banff at the weekend.
So far so good with image quality, however I will post some shots when im back from holiday for everyone. Believe me im the average Jo, im clumsy and make mistakes so you will get an honest view.
Finally, as far as I can see this is the cheapest option for a bullet/extreme cam approach. I've researched them all so far, most cost from £350-£600/£700. Some don't have the solid state the 405 has, some are too bulky, so bang for buck the Archos seems to fit my requirements well.
If you want to go all out then get something like a Viosport POV.1, but thats about £600 +.
We will see what 30mph down a mountain offers though, lol.
My mate has an Archos 404 with Archos Gen 4 Cam and he uses it for mountainbiking and it's pretty good, so hopefully the 405 follows in the same vein.
Finally, I can also confirm that the 16GB SDHC Card also works with the Archos 405, which many of you have also highlighted on this forum. This is more than i need for my holiday, but should also provide for a higher degree of quality in terms of images, than a normal hard drive approach that the 404 and many other packages have.
Downsides are that you have to plug in the camera connector into the Archos where as in the 404 it goes straight into the media player. The reason this is a bit of a negative is that you purchase a protective case and then realise you can't fit the bloody thing in it so have to improvise something, nothing major but a main for sure.
There is also no Lense Cap for the Gen 5 Camera, so my next post will be what have people done so far.
Anyway, numnuts is signing out, wish me luck!
Steve
Thought I would try and shed a bit more light for you as i'm a lame user of anything technical. Im clumsy too, which doesnt help!
I've got the Bullet Cam for the Archos, the Gen 5 Version, which im assuming you don't have? Anyway, just been playing with mine outside and it does the business for me. it was fully charged up and there wasn't much of a hit to the battery, however i've only recorded about 5 mins so far and intend to do multiple 5-10 min clips when im boarding. I will come back to my pc, download the clips and charge overnight ready for next day.
I've had to buy some attachments for my goggles for when i go snowboarding from dogcam.com and these work well imo.
Bullet Cam's are meant to be used for extreme sports, not day to day videoing, that's what Camcorders are for. I can see little point in a bullet cam for any other reason, unless you have started stalking your neighbour? My neighbours quite nice so I might try that, lol.
Another hint is to not bother charging via the USB lead to your pc, it takes forever, just use a USB Plug Adapter straight from the mains. I happen to have a blackberry which has this plug feature and also a Canadian Plug adapter so im sorted for Banff at the weekend.
So far so good with image quality, however I will post some shots when im back from holiday for everyone. Believe me im the average Jo, im clumsy and make mistakes so you will get an honest view.
Finally, as far as I can see this is the cheapest option for a bullet/extreme cam approach. I've researched them all so far, most cost from £350-£600/£700. Some don't have the solid state the 405 has, some are too bulky, so bang for buck the Archos seems to fit my requirements well.
If you want to go all out then get something like a Viosport POV.1, but thats about £600 +.
We will see what 30mph down a mountain offers though, lol.
My mate has an Archos 404 with Archos Gen 4 Cam and he uses it for mountainbiking and it's pretty good, so hopefully the 405 follows in the same vein.
Finally, I can also confirm that the 16GB SDHC Card also works with the Archos 405, which many of you have also highlighted on this forum. This is more than i need for my holiday, but should also provide for a higher degree of quality in terms of images, than a normal hard drive approach that the 404 and many other packages have.
Downsides are that you have to plug in the camera connector into the Archos where as in the 404 it goes straight into the media player. The reason this is a bit of a negative is that you purchase a protective case and then realise you can't fit the bloody thing in it so have to improvise something, nothing major but a main for sure.
There is also no Lense Cap for the Gen 5 Camera, so my next post will be what have people done so far.
Anyway, numnuts is signing out, wish me luck!
Steve
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ridgebacks
- Archos Novice
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:16 pm
thanks
Thanks for the reply. I'm just posting because there is not much info on the 405 here yet. I would have liked more of other peoples experience before i bought. I have now got a charger so i will see how it goes and then update. I bought mine for use at track days but have now found out about the 9min shutdown. The camera i bought has spare lenses at £11 for three, not bad i thought. They might be the same as the archos camera. I'll will measure them if you want. Less of a worry about protecting the lens if they are replaceable seperately.
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ridgebacks
- Archos Novice
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- Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:16 pm
my mistake
I thought i had read somewhere else that there was a nine minute limit before it shutdown and you had to start recording again. I got it wrong as i tried mine today in the car on a run down to the shop, 21.5mins and still running. I had the settings all at maximum and a 21.5min video used up 486Mb. I did not have time to experiment with quality settings and file sizes. I am happy with the result of this video though, colour and quality is okay. There is a slight delay when going from a dull area to bright for it to adjust, but nothing drastic and certainly quicker than i have seen on some pro videos. I think this is down to the camera not the Archos. I left it on charge over night and after recording maybe 45 mins of video and replaying it a couple of times to show people, aswell as a bit of messing about, the battery charge indicator is still showing 4 out of 5 which seems very good. Hope the snow is good for you, it's snowing again here (Edinburgh) at the moment. Let me know how you get on.
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ridgebacks
- Archos Novice
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- Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:16 pm
sample
Here is a link to a small clip, it is nothing interesting, just to give people an idea of quality with this setup. Filmed from inside a car on a rainy day with 4kam jammed between headrest and seat back, so not ideal. Better samples later. 17Mb/1min file. http://rapidshare.com/files/82836928/t1.wmv.html
Last edited by ridgebacks on Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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ridgebacks
- Archos Novice
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:16 pm
low quality sample
Here is a short clip taken with all settings at their lowest. The quality is greatly reduced from the previous sample. This explains my initial disappointment with the quality as this is the default setting. The file size appears to be approximately 9Mb per minute with these settings. Highest quality uses approximately 21Mb per minute. The video was taken with the camera attached to the handlebars of my bike using velcro. The velcro was stuck to a bit foam cable tied to the handlebars. Also raining in this video so water on lens. http://rapidshare.com/files/84542002/low_quality_settings.wmv.html
Last edited by ridgebacks on Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
Hi Chaps,
Just got back from Snowboarding in Lake Louise, Sunshine Village etc.
Have to say im really impressed with the Archos 405 and Gen 5 Camera and latest firmware.
Im a complete novice and it worked well.
I powered it up each evening and it worked well the next day.
As with some of the Lithium Ion batteries i noticed it took a few days for the battery level to reach optimum.
The cold was an issue to start with as it took ages to boot up and also affected the battery life, therefore on the first day i got about 2 hours after a full charge.
I quickly resolved this with a bit more padding and some glove heaters in my pocket and record time lept to about 3 hours total.
I will post my footage when i load it onto a website etc, however wanted to give a quick view.
The conditions I used this in were -5 to -20, although inside my jacket it was a lot less. The camera was outside all of the time and I had no issues either and it seemed pretty durable and waterproof. I had a couple of stacks, boarded in powder etc and it worked well. Even more interestingly we did some park shots and it worked really well, with no juddering over the jumps and rails.
I was using a 16gb card in case but to be honest this much isnt really required if you have a laptop which my mate did, so it was an easy download. I have to say this was a good job as i've not worked out how to copy/move videos from the Archos 2gb solid state to the sdhc 16gb card.
I recorded about 20 movies per day, ranging from 5 minutes to 20 minutes with no issues at all. It takes some time to get used to the setup and the remote control, but i put down early issues to the cold which was later resolved as the Archos would shut down, or i had to keep powering on and off to look after battery life.
As I said before with the glove warmers, or a deeper inside pocket this wasnt a problem.
I used a Dogcam Velcro fastner which attaches to your goggles.
I have to say I was dissapointed with the velcro head thing they give you, its too small to fit round your head and we tried everyone in our group, so the dogcam goggle attachment it was. In fact its smaller than the Archos Gen 4 which does fit perfectly. It was also impracticle to wear it whilst wearing a helmet.
I tried the velcro to the helmet, but this was unpracticle as it would get knocked by my goggles. I also tried the suckers but these were not going to work out. Thought about super glue, however this may cause issues with the integrity of my helmet.
I would suggest you play around a bit until you get your setup correct, but the goggle setting worked really well for me.
One thing you do need to remember is to ensure your headcam is inline with your eyeballs, as the first few movies i was looking at my board or just in front, until i moved the line of sight into a better position.
My mate has a video camera and can board really well with it, however nothing beats a headcam doing chasecam footage of your mates, so crisp, smooth and clear. It's also quicker to activate the camera, than a video camera, which you need to take out of your bag etc.
The inbuilt microphone worked really well too, although only really picked up my voice, or someone really close to me.
The whole system was very durable, i had a few knocks, was doing jumps, rails etc and there were no issues with recording.
I will definately be using this next year and have learnt a lot of lessons this time. Hopefully the firmware will add further improvements, but so far bang for buck its worth it.
Here's a link to one of the video's. Remember this is not a Video Camera, it's at -10-20 degrees and it's not £700 worth of equipment, other than that, its pretty cool and it's added a new dimension to our Snowboarding holidays!
Click Here for Snowboard Video - Banff
If you are looking for something better, you can spend a lot more money, learn to board with an expensive video camera in freezing conditions (one of my mates can, pretty good tbh), or hire a BBC film crew, which isn't cheap.
It's good if your starting out.
Steve
Just got back from Snowboarding in Lake Louise, Sunshine Village etc.
Have to say im really impressed with the Archos 405 and Gen 5 Camera and latest firmware.
Im a complete novice and it worked well.
I powered it up each evening and it worked well the next day.
As with some of the Lithium Ion batteries i noticed it took a few days for the battery level to reach optimum.
The cold was an issue to start with as it took ages to boot up and also affected the battery life, therefore on the first day i got about 2 hours after a full charge.
I quickly resolved this with a bit more padding and some glove heaters in my pocket and record time lept to about 3 hours total.
I will post my footage when i load it onto a website etc, however wanted to give a quick view.
The conditions I used this in were -5 to -20, although inside my jacket it was a lot less. The camera was outside all of the time and I had no issues either and it seemed pretty durable and waterproof. I had a couple of stacks, boarded in powder etc and it worked well. Even more interestingly we did some park shots and it worked really well, with no juddering over the jumps and rails.
I was using a 16gb card in case but to be honest this much isnt really required if you have a laptop which my mate did, so it was an easy download. I have to say this was a good job as i've not worked out how to copy/move videos from the Archos 2gb solid state to the sdhc 16gb card.
I recorded about 20 movies per day, ranging from 5 minutes to 20 minutes with no issues at all. It takes some time to get used to the setup and the remote control, but i put down early issues to the cold which was later resolved as the Archos would shut down, or i had to keep powering on and off to look after battery life.
As I said before with the glove warmers, or a deeper inside pocket this wasnt a problem.
I used a Dogcam Velcro fastner which attaches to your goggles.
I have to say I was dissapointed with the velcro head thing they give you, its too small to fit round your head and we tried everyone in our group, so the dogcam goggle attachment it was. In fact its smaller than the Archos Gen 4 which does fit perfectly. It was also impracticle to wear it whilst wearing a helmet.
I tried the velcro to the helmet, but this was unpracticle as it would get knocked by my goggles. I also tried the suckers but these were not going to work out. Thought about super glue, however this may cause issues with the integrity of my helmet.
I would suggest you play around a bit until you get your setup correct, but the goggle setting worked really well for me.
One thing you do need to remember is to ensure your headcam is inline with your eyeballs, as the first few movies i was looking at my board or just in front, until i moved the line of sight into a better position.
My mate has a video camera and can board really well with it, however nothing beats a headcam doing chasecam footage of your mates, so crisp, smooth and clear. It's also quicker to activate the camera, than a video camera, which you need to take out of your bag etc.
The inbuilt microphone worked really well too, although only really picked up my voice, or someone really close to me.
The whole system was very durable, i had a few knocks, was doing jumps, rails etc and there were no issues with recording.
I will definately be using this next year and have learnt a lot of lessons this time. Hopefully the firmware will add further improvements, but so far bang for buck its worth it.
Here's a link to one of the video's. Remember this is not a Video Camera, it's at -10-20 degrees and it's not £700 worth of equipment, other than that, its pretty cool and it's added a new dimension to our Snowboarding holidays!
Click Here for Snowboard Video - Banff
If you are looking for something better, you can spend a lot more money, learn to board with an expensive video camera in freezing conditions (one of my mates can, pretty good tbh), or hire a BBC film crew, which isn't cheap.
It's good if your starting out.
Steve
Last edited by shidevil on Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:32 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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ridgebacks
- Archos Novice
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:16 pm
It's this mate:
http://www.lowpricememory.co.uk/16GB-SD ... egral.html
Integral
Does me fine!
£42.25.
It also comes with a USB Adapter as well, which enabled me to backup my mates PC completely last night, bargain! Well worth getting not just for the Archos. Who else can say they have a 16GB USB Stick :P
http://www.lowpricememory.co.uk/16GB-SD ... egral.html
Integral
Does me fine!
£42.25.
It also comes with a USB Adapter as well, which enabled me to backup my mates PC completely last night, bargain! Well worth getting not just for the Archos. Who else can say they have a 16GB USB Stick :P
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ridgebacks
- Archos Novice
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- Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:16 pm
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chuckbecker
- Archos Novice
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- Joined: Sun May 04, 2008 5:53 am
copy protection?
I have a twenty20 helmet cam and an Archos 405 2GB ... having a major problem. Short videos work fine, but anything over 100MB (about 10 minutes) shows up as copy protected when tranferring to my PC. I've tried multiple viewer programs on the PC, same story with each. I've updated to firmware version 2.something and the problem still occurs.
Am I missing something? Is there a setting for this? Any help or thoughts on this would be greataly appreciated!
Am I missing something? Is there a setting for this? Any help or thoughts on this would be greataly appreciated!
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ridgebacks
- Archos Novice
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:16 pm
Re: copy protection?
chuckbecker wrote:I have a twenty20 helmet cam and an Archos 405 2GB ... having a major problem. Short videos work fine, but anything over 100MB (about 10 minutes) shows up as copy protected when tranferring to my PC. I've tried multiple viewer programs on the PC, same story with each. I've updated to firmware version 2.something and the problem still occurs.
Am I missing something? Is there a setting for this? Any help or thoughts on this would be greataly appreciated!
Update to the new Firmware: 2.1.04
"Bug fixes:
Music: Fixed playlist created from "Hard Drive" which was not correctly saved
Music: Fixed Windows Media Player Playlist support
Video: Fixed macrovision-protected recorded video playback"
They just fixed it
AV580 abUser
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ridgebacks
- Archos Novice
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- Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:16 pm
Sample Video
Here is a sample video taken with 4kam and Archos 405. http://rapidshare.com/files/120421097/V ... 5.AVI.html Should take about 5mins to download. Sound is a bit quiet as it's my first attempt with the microphone.
Re: 4kam and archos 405 motorcycle videos
Seen some integral and other SDHC cards here too: http://www.gomemory.co.uk/memory/sd-memory.html